A summary of the adventures of Elder Openshaw while he is in the Madrid Spain Mission 2016-2018.

Monday, June 12, 2017

May 1, 2017 ~ Transfer 6/Transfer Week

Hi everybody!

So this week was pretty busy. You already heard from me on the past Wednesday when we had our temple day. Thursday through Sunday was quite busy, we were rushing around a lot.

Thursday was a normal day.

Friday we were running around lesson to lesson. We did studies in the morning and then all the time after that were we running around. We got late when we couldn't find an apartment number and it set everything off haha =) the struggles of planning a filled day. But we had a lot of tender mercies, we got to help a family move some furniture up from a moving truck to the 4th floor with no elevator (we got there right when they needed help), although it was unplanned it worked out really well (we did have a lesson planned with them just not moving furniture).

We also needed to find a someone to help us with a lesson very last minute and we called and called people to see if anyone could help. After probably 5-6 "no's" we found someone to help and it was perfect. Then we helped a family move who we helped a couple weeks ago and they've had trouble finding an apartment. They had been living with family but there were 12 people in one small apartment so they needed to leave. And the ironic thing is that they found a piso right across from the previous one. =) I laughed when we found that out. Another tender mercy is that the family fed us pizza for helping them and they make really good pizza =)

Saturday - we ran around but weren't as late as before. =) We had English class, then ran over to a home where we help the daughter with her English homework occasionally. What happened is after finishing up and getting ready to leave they invited us to eat - papa de guacaina. It was great but we also had planned a comida (a big meal that they eat here in the middle of the day, Mediodía). We ate and then we went and ate again, back to back (we had roast beef and rice at the next house). It was manageable but it was difficult trying to run around for the rest of the days activities with your stomach feeling ready to explode =)

Saturday was also when we found out about transfers and whether or not we leave to a different area on Monday. Me and my companion weren't sure if we both were staying and we are low on food (because that's what happens towards the end of a transfer). The worse thing is that transfers fell on the weekend of a holiday here in Spain (what they call a bridge, when the holidays fall next to each other and they have 3-4 days of holidays). All the stores are closed except the bakeries and the Chinos (small stores ran by people from China). So... with finding out about transfers on Saturday night at 9:30pm and all the stores closing at 9pm...we were left with no food. And they were no changes so we were (and are) left with little food. Struggles of transfers haha =) thankfully the zone leaders still have food in piso... =)

Funny moment:

Yesterday we were at a member's home and they have a ton of leftover candy from their 1-year-olds birthday party. And so me and my companion told the mom that the sisters (girl missionaries) wanted candy. "Hermana White really wants more candy, she says she doesn't but she's just saying it to be polite". We ended up leaving with quite a bit of candy ÷) (especially because they don't want it). The Hermanas weren't happy with us but it was funny =) the members played along with us.